Mizzen mast repairs

Five years ago I lengthened the mizzen mast in order to accommodate a mizzen boom.  The account was in this blog entry. The increased height is necessary for the boom to achieve clearance over the outboard motor in its raised position.  The solution at the time was to place a hollow stainless steel tube over the top of the mast and insert a short length of wood (taken from the wooden spindle of a disused window blind).  This, six screws and a lick of exterior brown paint has served the purpose since then.  It was only ever intended as a stop-gap until I had both the time and, probably more pertinently, plucked up the courage to do something more permanent.

It's quite remarkable that it lasted as long as it did but recently it had become noticeably loose and, in removing the screws, the rotting wood explained why.

So, it has become necessary to achieve a more permanent solution, namely to attempt to scarf a piece of timber on the top end of the mast.  I've heard this explained many times but never before attempted it.  It so happens that an off-cut of the piece of spruce from which I originally whittled the most recent mizzen boom was a reasonably good length.  It wasn't quite long enough for the recommended 1:7 scarf joint, more like 1:6, but I've decided I can live with that - if it subsequently needs redoing, that's fine!  I can think of at least one further reason for inserting a through bolt other than for strengthening the joint - more of all of that in due course.

First steps were to mark out and saw the timber.

I then used epoxy to glue the two pieces together.

The epoxy glue dried overnight.  The following evening, using an electric plane and some sand paper, it rather neatly reduced to this:

Next job is to apply some varnish.  I'm not one for achieving superior finishes, but hope that whatever I apply will do a reasonable job.  I've used Ronseal exterior varnish, on and off, for a while and found a small tin just for the job.  It's clear varnish so it should make an interesting feature of the woodwork.  This is after one coat; several more to go during evenings this week.